Satellite Beam Scheduling with Moving Center Targets
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Solution Overview
Problem
Scheduling terminals in satellite communications systems faces challenges in maximizing beam capacity while ensuring service fairness and proportional fairness among users, particularly due to varying signal quality caused by beam oscillation.
Innovation Solution
The system dynamically adjusts beam center targets over a succession of scheduling intervals, scheduling terminals based on per-terminal signal-quality metrics that vary with respect to these targets, allowing terminals to experience better signal quality during certain intervals.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If beam center targets are kept fixed for user beam scheduling, then scheduling simplicity is maintained, but beam capacity and service fairness deteriorate due to varying signal quality across different terminal locations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by making the beam center target movable rather than fixed. The beam center target is dynamically adjusted to different locations within the user beam coverage area over time, allowing the system to adapt to varying terminal positions and signal quality conditions, thereby improving beam capacity while maintaining manageable scheduling complexity through structured movement patterns.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements periodic action by oscillating the beam center target between different locations within the user beam coverage area. This periodic movement creates time-varying signal quality conditions that allow different terminals to experience optimal signal quality at different times, enabling the scheduler to achieve both high beam capacity and service fairness by scheduling terminals when their signal quality is optimal.
2Reliability
If beam center target is changed over scheduling intervals, then signal quality for different terminals improves, but scheduling complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The beam center target is made dynamic, changing position over scheduling intervals to optimize signal quality for different terminals. This dynamic adjustment allows the system to adapt to spatial variations in signal quality across the user beam coverage area, improving reliability of communication links while the structured nature of the movement keeps scheduling complexity manageable.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary action by pre-planning the beam center target positions and oscillation pattern before scheduling terminals. By establishing the beam movement trajectory in advance, the scheduler can predict when different terminals will experience optimal signal quality, allowing for more efficient scheduling decisions without requiring complex real-time adjustments.
3Reliability
If beam oscillation is implemented to improve signal quality distribution, then service fairness improves, but beam capacity may be reduced due to time-varying beam positions
Solution Approach 1:
The periodic oscillation of the beam center target ensures that different regions within the user beam coverage area receive equitable service over time. By systematically moving the beam center to different locations in a periodic manner, the system guarantees that all terminals have opportunities to experience optimal signal quality, achieving service fairness while the beam remains actively engaged with user terminals throughout the coverage area, maintaining high beam capacity.
Solution Approach 2:
The beam oscillation implements continuity of useful action by ensuring the beam is always positioned to serve some portion of the user beam coverage area effectively. Rather than remaining static and potentially missing terminals in certain regions, or moving erratically, the beam continuously sweeps through different positions, ensuring uninterrupted and equitable service to all terminals while maintaining high utilization of the beam resource.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques for scheduling a plurality of terminals assigned to a user beam of a satellite communications system involve selecting different beam center targets for the user beam over a succession of scheduling intervals and scheduling respective ones among the terminals over the succession of scheduling intervals according to per-terminal signal-quality metrics that vary with respect to the different beam center targets. Changing the beam center target over the succession of scheduling intervals means that each terminal can experience good, or at least relatively better, signal quality during at least some of the scheduling intervals, which in turn allows a scheduler to schedule respective ones of the terminals primarily on the one or more scheduling intervals in which they experience the good or relatively better signal quality. Benefits flowing from this approach include higher overall capacity for the user beam while maintaining service fairness for the assigned terminals.